Introspective Podcasts Created by Troubled Youth

Earlier this month Salt Lake City Weekly profiled Sending Messages, a candid podcast series composed of personal narratives, poetry, short fiction, spoken word, and interviews created by students at a youth corrections facility in Utah. Rather than talking about gadgets and Justin Bieber’s haircut, the students pour heart and personal experience into the podcasts. Gavin Sheehan reports:

Episodes have covered a wide range of emotional topics touching on family, high school, nightmares, addiction, new experiences, death, love and, most importantly, looking ahead at life to come. The stories don’t glorify or sensationalize bad experiences and are written with an audience in mind that never has experienced anything like these students have. Stories and poems are carefully crafted to get the point across with various perspectives from teenage minds that have undergone more than some adults will in their lives—baring all as a creative and sometimes therapeutic outlet, while serving as thought-provoking listening for the audience.